More Versailles-y than Versailles

According to Paola, who actually has been to Versailles, the Palacio Real at Aranjuez is "more Versailles-y than Versailles." I am inclined to agree with her solely based on the impressiveness of this palace, originally built by Felipe II but finished by the Borbones (they are French. Perhaps that explains it?) and used as a spring residence every year until the First Republic in 1863-ish.

Looks pretty Versailles-ish from the front, right?

Obviously, we didn't have the best timing when visiting this palace - it's pretty much winter here and the palace was habited in spring for a reason - its extensive gardens. There are about ten million of them, filled with fountains and benches and with a river running right through them (the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula, I'm told).

Eating lunch in the gardens

Fountain. One of many.

Not sure exactly what creature this is supposed to be...

The inside of the Palace was not too shabby, either. We paid all of 3 euro to go on the super special guided tour, that took us to rooms that the guide had to unlock with a key that looked original. We even felt very accomplished because we took the tour in Spanish and understood it all (mostly) perfectly. Much cooler than the Palacio Real in Madrid, if you ask me (although that could be because we didn't do the super secret tour...). And once again, no photos allowed inside, so I googled these two so you can see my favorite rooms from the palace:

Room decorated all in porcelain, with Chinese theme and lots of monkeys

Probably my favorite room, this one was decorated to look like the Alhambra in Granada.

This photo doesn't even do it justice. The Alhambra room was so impressive and overwhelming and now I am even more stoked for our trip to Granada in two weeks.